As by the revolt of the first man, the image of God could be effaced from his mind and soul, so there is nothing strange in His shedding some rays of grace on the reprobate, and afterwards allowing these to be extinguished.
John CalvinWhen God designs to forgive us he changes our hearts and turns us to obedience by His Spirit.
John CalvinBecause the will renewed is the Lord's work, it is wrongly attributed to man that he obeys prevenient grace with his will as attendant.
John CalvinAt this day . . . the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; . . . but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God.
John CalvinThe whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power, but the Church is the orchestra, as it wereโthe most conspicuous part of it; and the nearer the approaches are that God makes to us, the more intimate and condescending the communication of his benefits, the more attentively are we called to consider them.
John Calvin